Misekake na Sekai
by Kiba aru Tenshi
Summary: Trapped in a strange, dark world where what is tangible is hard to tell from what is illusion. The untold tale of the Byakko no seishi and their miko, Suzuno
1. World of Make-believe

This is my story of the Byakko no miko and her seishi, their history was somewhat shadily created by me and a friend and I decided to fill in the holes. There isn't yet, but the story will have some shounen-ai/yaoi later on, nothing graphic...but, just to let you know. I'm not sure but I think the story will stretch on for some time, and I'll write and add chapters whenever I have free time. I know it's boring now 9_9 but it should get at least a bit more interesting. Reviews always appreciated.  
  
byakkokokie@aol.com  
  
Misekake na Sekai  
  
"I need someone to believe in. Someone to trust."-Genesis   
  
Chapter one  
  
Characteristically, summer in Sairou lasts no more than three short months. Three months of bliss, of blazing suns and an ample amount of fresh fruits, picture perfect meadows and an unending stretch of aquamarine sky, the god's glory. That summer, however, seemed to last forever.   
  
Aichling Lake was tinged with ripples of soft pink as the sun began its rise above the distant hills that marked the border between Sairou and Konan. Absent-mindedly, Kasaru dipped his finger into the waters as he lounged in the grasses that lined the water. He broke the thin film of mold that coated the lake and sighed contently, the skin on his hand being met with refreshing swirls of cool water.  
  
He had a special kinship with plants that sometimes bewildered him as much as it bewildered his little sister, and anyone that came to know the quiet twenty year old. He was reserved, unhappy in crowds (very much unlike Ai-Leng, who thrived on being the center of attention) and uncomfortable indoors. He had wondered dejectedly, more than once, if he had just been born to be uncomfortable, but those fleeting thoughts were vanquished as soon as he stepped into nature. Among fresh greenery, underneath the blanket of clouds with nothing to protect him against the elements, Kasaru felt at home. It was the gentle whisper of the wind through leaves that he craved, not the loud squawking of people. He had nothing against people as a whole, though some did on Kasaru's nerves, they just...weren't what he craved.  
  
Slowly being lulled to sleep by the murmur of the lake lapping at the shore, his eyelids closed over pale blue eyes and his breathing slowed. It was not uncommon for him to fall asleep out here; he had never had a problem with anyone bothering him while he dozed, namely because he wasn't interesting enough for people to even try to irritate him.  
  
He was slowly slipping off into a dream when a loud -splash- jarred him out of sleep. He sat up, slightly disoriented, and opened his eyes just as a shower of fat water droplets rained down on his head. In the middle of the lake something was struggling among the waves it had created, grappling for something to keep it afloat. From a distant, it looked like nothing more than a flailing seal.  
  
"HELP! OH HEEELLPPP!!!" the girl choked out as she spat out the water that rushed into her mouth every time she opened it in an effort to breathe. The voice tugged Kasaru out of his passivity and he tugged off his boots hastily, diving into the water and swimming for the girl, who had by now slipped fully into the waters.  
  
Kasaru had never been a strong swimmer, but something allowed him to press onward in spite of his weariness. He -couldn't- let this girl drown, the desire to save her set his heart ablaze, warmed his skin despite the chill of the waters he was cutting through. With an almost over-dramatic gasp for oxygen, he dipped under water and felt for her blindly, but came up with nothing.  
  
Finally he dared to crack his eyes open. In the fading sunlight, the lake was a depthless green pool, plant-like algae sprouting out from the black pit beneath him that could have reached a depth of five feet or five hundred. She was down there -somewhere-, but Kasaru lacked the know-how to find her, and he was running out of oxygen himself.  
  
Vague warmth graced the back of his hand, and as he watched, the mark on the back of his right hand began to glow a dim yellow. The light wasn't very strong, its purpose wasn't served there, but his eyes honed in attentively through the darkness as a single seed floated up from the depths and pressed itself against his hand. As he closed the slender digits of his hand around the seed that seemed to have a life of its own, vines sprouted out. The plunged into the depths of the lake, and Kasaru gave a startled gasp, the ever-opportunistic water choking off his air and filling his lungs as he did so.  
  
He was growing pale, his face turning blue, and he began to doubt whether he had the energy to swim himself to shore, let alone the girl. He grew certain that he had brought himself to an inevitable death, brought on by his own foolishness. The break of the water was at least twenty feet above his head, and he began to feel...so...weak...  
  
A gentle hand shook his shoulder, and Kasaru rolled over and coughed up the dirty brown lake water that robbed his lungs of air. His entire body shook, racked with coughs, but a spark of elation made his heart flutter.  
  
He was alive!  
  
After a few moments, Kasaru hoisted himself up into a half-upright position, his worn body being supported by his elbows. Ribbons of dark hair were pasted to his skin and framed his pale face. He turned his head to set his gaze on the girl kneeling beside him.  
  
There was nothing extraordinary about her, she was soaked to the bone as was Kasaru, and he knew that she had been the one that had plunged into the lake. So she had survived, that was quite a relief to Kasaru, like a ten pound weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Her hair was a dark shade that could have been black, brown, or dark blue...he couldn't tell while it was wet. She seemed like an ordinary girl in every other way, except for her eyes. Her eyes were a light chestnut brown, framed by long eyelashes, widened in bewilderment. They gave her an air of innocence and yet the murky depths of brown could have held any number of secrets. As he stared into her eyes, he felt a blush rise in his cheeks, and he had to look away.  
  
The girl swept her fingers through her drenched mane of hair, her braids were ruined, but she couldn't bring herself to be vain in a moment like this. Her mind was in turmoil, a mixture of excitement, fear, confusion and sadness swirling together in a dangerous cocktail. She couldn't understand why she had been stooped over an ancient musty book, reading some kind of incantation...and then she had been plunging to her death in freezing waters. None of it made any sense, but then again, neither did the death of her best friend Takiko, killed by her own -father-.  
  
Memories swam before her vision, made her almost oblivious to the man in front of her. Her father, laughing with her mother as he picked up the phone, and then his face growing pale as the phone nearly slipped from his fingers. Yes, he knew Okuda-san, no he hadn't talked to him recently, and he didn't know why such a loving man would kill his daughter and then himself. Since Takiko and her father had no close relatives, the man on the other end of the line had requested that he come in to identify the body. Her parents drove off, shaken, leaving the girl behind. It was alone in their apartment, that she ventured into her father's study and found the ShiJinTenChiSho.   
  
Kasaru watched her with growing concern; she looked as if she could be in a trance of some sort. Was it brain death? Some cruel result of being deprived of oxygen for so long? He reached out and gently prodded her shoulder with his finger. She turned to look at him, her eyes almost impossibly wide.  
  
"Where...am I?" her voice came out in a near-croak, her throat raw from gasping for air. She put her hand to her throat and looked down, as if ashamed. Kasaru opened his mouth to speak, but as he explained to her what had happened, a sound of rushing water met her ears, drowned out all other sounds, and she felt herself slipping until she was surrounded in only darkness.  
  



	2. Blood of Eden

"I stood in this sun sheltered place, until I could see the face behind the face. All that had gone before had left no trace. Down by the railway siding, in a secret world we were colliding. In all the places we were hiding of...what was it we were thinking of?" Peter Gabriel  
  
Chapter two  
  
"She's pretty, Kasaru-chan, where did she come from?" The bright green-eyed seven year old turned to look at her brother as he entered the spare room, gingerly holding a cup of tea in his hands.   
  
"I'm not sure, Ai-Leng, from the sky, I suppose..." like an angel, Kasaru added mentally, but said nothing as he set the steaming cup on the nightstand beside the bed. She did, in fact, look like an angel as she slept, her color had returned some and as her hair dried Kasaru could tell that it was more of a sandy brown than a black. She looked so peaceful, and Kasaru was hesitant to wake her...but he knew he would have to eventually, if only to make sure she was all right health wise.  
  
"Just like the legend..." Ai-Leng said in awe, tugging on a curly strand of auburn hair. Kasaru plopped down in a wicker chair positioned across the room and looked at her oddly, confused as to what she was referring to. "You know!..." she continued "Of the Byakko no miko. A girl with clothes of a strange land would appear from nowhere in a time when the empire was in crisis...and she and her seven seishi would call upon Byakko to help!"  
  
"Perhaps we ought to see if she can save my garden, then...it's withering in this heat wave." Kasaru said light-heartedly, his gaze once again returning to the sleeping girl. Ai-Leng wrinkled her nose and sighed, giving up any hope that her brother would ever take her seriously.   
  
"Fine...laugh all you want 'niisan, but you should think about this sometime...after all, it does explain the 'birthmark' on your hand." She smiled brightly and hoisted her tattered teddy bear into her arms, flouncing out of the room. With a sigh, he sat back and shook his head, for all his love of his little sister; her energy could grate on his nerves when he had had a particularly trying day.  
  
He had just begun to reflect on the day's odd events when the girl stirred in the cotton sheets. Her eyes opened a crack and she glanced around the room, taking in the contents of her surroundings. It appeared to be too much for her and she soon closed her eyes again. Kasaru feared she had fallen back to sleep, but a moment later her soft voice, so contrasting with the strained croak it was earlier, broke the silence in the room.  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
"In the guest room at my house. I'm sorry...but when you fainted I didn't know what to do, town is two or three miles from here...I couldn't carry you that far." Kasaru got to his feet and padded across the wooden planks of the floor over to the bed, seating himself on the very edge so as not to impose upon her space.  
  
"No, no...you've done more than enough." The girl smiled weakly and sat up. Looking down she realized she was no longer in her school clothes, instead she was wrapped in an elaborate ever-green kimono, with soft teal spirals that decorated the sleeves and the tail of the robe, with a teal obi to match. Kasaru noticed her examining it and took the opportunity to break the silence, not that in her presence it was uncomfortable...but he didn't want her to feel awkward.  
  
"It was my mother's, she left it to Ai-Leng when she died...don't worry, my sister gave you the dry clothes, not me...I just, didn't want you catching a cold..." he added the last part hastily, knowing he would die if she mistook him for some kind of ecchi (pervert).  
  
"It's pretty...and thank you." The girl, whom still had not given her name, moved so her legs slipped out from the covers, and she could bury her bare feet in the rug beside the bed. Then she noticed the cup of emerald green tea. "Is...that for me?"  
  
When Kasaru nodded, she reached over and carefully retrieved the cooling cup, sipping at the contents slowly, savoring the mild taste of the tea and the feel of it washing down her raw throat. When the cup was empty, she set it down and turned to him, her eyes alight as if the tea had rejuvenated me. "I'm sorry...I didn't tell you my name. I'm Oosugi Suzuno."  
  
"My name is Kasaru." He smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.   
  
"Do you...live alone?"  
  
"With my sister. I moved out of my home about three years ago, when I was seventeen. During that time my mother became ill and died...my father couldn't handle taking care of Ai-Leng, and so she came to live with me."  
  
"Oh..." Suzuno trailed off with a thoughtful nod, running her fingers through her frayed hair as she once again surveyed the room. It was done simply, not much larger than her closet back at home, but its simplicity gave it a feeling of warmth, which was only added to by the fresh daisies in a vase beside the window and the sunlight that streamed in, casting a square patch of light on the wooden floor.  
  
"You know my sister had the oddest thing to say...she said that your appearance matched the legends of the priestess of Byakko that would come from foreign lands, I told her it was foolish but..."  
  
An ear-piercing scream rang through the house and sliced Kasaru's sentence in half. Although the sound made Kasaru's brain freeze in fear, his feet were already jumping into action, running out of the room and down the hall to the main room that emptied out into the entrance. The scene that greeted his eyes would forever be stained into his memory, for the ninety years he lived after that.  
  
His sister had crumpled in a pool of blood, her face a look of utter surprise, her features slack and inanimate. A crimson gash ran from ear to ear underneath the seven year old's chin, and her neck was snapped back to reveal layers of delicate tissue and spine. Bloody footprints led from the body to halfway to the doors that yawned wide, where they dropped off, as if the attacker had just disappeared.  
  
He was burning with rage but more so grief, feeling a chilling numb spread through his body as he knelt in the pool of his sisters blood and tentatively felt for a pulse, but in the seconds that had separated the scream from this moment, she had already died.  
  
A sob got lodged in Kasaru's throat, cutting off his ability to breathe as he knelt there in disbelief. From the doorway, Suzuno watched, frozen to her spot. She wanted to help, but she didn't know what to do, and the abundance of the scarlet liquid was making her nauseous...blood had always done that to her. She turned her head away from the carnage, and that was when she noticed a stained discarded piece of paper. She bent down and retrieved it, but she couldn't read the calligraphy scrawled messily down the page.   
  
She debated whether or not Kasaru ought to see it; though she couldn't read it there was a sense of foreboding, of evil, in the note alone. A few minutes of mourning passed by, and finally she touched Kasaru's shoulder with timid fingers. He turned to look up at her, his eyes red, but his cheeks dry...as if he could not cry.  
  
"H-here..." her shy words broke the stony silence that had settled uneasily in the room. Suzuno handed the note to Kasaru, and he took it. As his fingers felt along the crisp edges of the paper he left bloody fingerprints. He read over the note once, it was short but its words stung like acid, and caused only more confusion...for Suzuno he read aloud:  
  
Byakko warrior,  
Let this be a warning that the powers you tamper with are not child's play. Think of this image as a threat, of what -could- happen. Your sister is safe, but not for long...if you do not bring the Byakko no miko to the Sairou palace.  
  
As Kasaru looked up, Ai-Leng's body disappeared. The blood as well seemed to shiver and then slid through previously unseen cracks in the floor and disappear. An illusion, though Kasaru's mind was still so shaken that he did not register it as such.  
  
"Byakko no miko...but who...?" Kasaru murmured, his brain a blur with questions. He took a deep breath; focusing his thoughts like they had taught him to do the few times he had actually braved Martial Arts lessons. It was then, with his mind cleared, that his sister's words clicked. The legend...the girl from another world...  
  
"I think...this person is referring to you." Kasaru confessed finally, folding the note and slipping it into pocket. "It is supposed to only be a legend...but whoever this is believes legitimately that -you- are the priestess of Byakko and I...am one of your seishi."  
  
"...and he wants you to take me to this palace, to save your sister?"  
  
"Yes...but, I couldn't ask that of you..." Kasaru sighed, shaking his head in defeat. If this person was serious, then there would be only one way he could save Ai-Leng. He would never ask that of Suzuno, he would just have to brave the journey alone and see what he could do on his own.   
Suzuno's face contorted in a small frown "I could -never- be that selfish, Kasaru...not after how you saved my life...how could I not do everything in my capabilities to help you and your sister?"  
  
Kasaru bit down on his lower lip, weighing the possibilities "...it could be dangerous, we don't know exactly why he wants me to bring you to him..."  
  
"Well I'm not saying we should just surrender me to him in exchange for Ai-Leng...I just...I don't know, but if there's any truth to these legends...then you might need me, and who knows? We might be able to learn something from the jerk that took her."  
  
When she noted that Kasaru was still hesitating, rolling the facts over in his mind, she hastily added "...please! Let me help...don't turn me away like everyone else does..." Let me prove myself, Suzuno pleaded silently. All her life she had been pampered, not so much as a sprained ankle had ever caused her any sort of pain...her parents guarded her so protectively. It wasn't pain she craved, just a chance to be useful, a chance to be independent. For all she knew...this would be her one and only chance.  
  
"...Fine" Kasaru finally agreed, with a resigned sigh. Suzuno's face lit up, as if she had just been allowed admittance into a secret theme park, dangerous looking but harmless. She told him that she would be ready as she changed back into her school uniform and then turned to leave the room.  
  
What had they gotten into? Kasaru began to silently tick through the possibilities; each one became increasingly more bizarre. If the legends -were- true, then would they need the other six Byakko no seishi? And if so...where could they be found?  
  
"Ai-Leng...please be safe...I can't live without you..."  



	3. Porcelain

"And late at night when you call my name, the only sound you'll hear...is the sound of your voice calling, calling out to me." Phil Collins  
  
Chapter three  
  
A warm rain had started and pattered down on the two as they road toward town on the only horse Kasaru found reliable to take them that far. Although the horse was somewhat old, it was in prime condition, and he was sure he could trade it for a cheap horse and carriage. It was weather like this that reminded them why they needed a carriage in the first place, the rain plopped heavily on their skin and oozed warm trails down their arms and created sticky patches on their clothes.   
  
Suzuno clung to Kasaru's waist out of a genuine fear of riding a horse. She had always admired them from a far, occasionally getting the chance to lean over the fallen down wooden fence of her grandmother's farm and feed the aging horse Shotou bits of apples she saved from lunch. Now she was actually getting a chance to experience riding one of these beautiful creatures, and what was she doing? Cowering and clinging to Kasaru's waist.  
  
They made it to town in an hour's time, and by then the rain had slowed to a drizzle that was quite a bit more annoying than the rain that had preceded it. Kasaru slowed the horse to a trot, and Suzuno loosened her grip, though keeping her hands planted on his hips.  
  
The town was no more than a sporadic scattering of houses, though the streets were lined almost end to end with a number of stands that held a variety of treats, fruits, cheap clothing, jewelry...and they all led the trail that emptied out into a cluster of higher priced shops.   
  
Kasaru dismounted the horse and helped Suzuno down as well, glancing around. "I'm going to go look around and see who might be selling...you wait here with the horse, all right?"  
  
Suzuno nodded in agreement, before asking hesitantly "Is there...any way we could get something to eat too? It doesn't have to be anything big and I can pay you back I just..."  
  
"Hai, of course Suzuno, and you don't have to pay me back...after all you're under my care now. I'll try to be back soon." Kasaru brushed his bangs off his forehead and wiped his brow, as the rain dribbled to an end, the sun had become quite harsh, glaring through whatever clouds it could wedge itself between.   
  
She watched Kasaru wind his way through the crowd and disappear into the marketplace and sighed, fidgeting slightly, unsure of what she should do to spend her time. Her stomach felt like it was twisted into knots, though whether this was from hunger or nervousness she couldn't quite be sure. Her legs wobbled a bit from weariness when she tried to walk, and she wanted so badly to sit down, but the ground beneath her feet was still damp from the rains.   
  
An hour passed by and still she did not see Kasaru's familiar face emerging from the herd of people that shuffled from stand to stand looking for the best deal. Had he forgotten about her? She contemplated this for only a moment before she decided Kasaru didn't seem the type that would ditch someone, even if they -were- a hassle. He must have run into some kind of trouble, and if that were so he might need her help. If there was one thing Suzuno knew, she was determined not to be useless. She led the horse over to a nearby tree and tied him up, sure he would be fine for a little while, and then quickly made her way down the hill and into town.  
  
She felt eyes on her as she tried to worm her way through the thick crowd, people looking at her oddly because of the school uniform she wore. Not used to being stared at, she lowered her eyes and tried to make herself look as small and inconspicuous as possible...perhaps she should have kept on that kimono instead.  
  
"Byakko, you're -beautiful-! Can I paint your portrait? Please, please, please?"  
Suzuno jerked her head up and looked in the direction where the excited voice was coming. What she saw was a man that looked a little younger than Kasaru, slightly shorter as well. His teal hair was a bit wild, ruffled, longer strands hanging down to his shoulders while shorter bangs fell in front of shining violet eyes. In both hands he clutched a number of different sized brushes, and his tunic was splattered with pastel paints.   
  
"Who...me?" Suzuno pointed to herself and blinked at him, confused.  
  
"Of course, you!"  
  
"I'm kinda...busy..." She said, almost regretfully, clasping her hands behind her back as she did often when she felt uneasy.  
  
"Oh...I see..." He nodded and lowered his eyes, giving an almost over-exaggerated sigh of rejection.   
  
"Please...don't be sad." Suzuno took a step forward and brought a hand up "I'll...fine, you can paint me...but first I need to find my friend."  
  
"Really?" He jerked his head up, his eyes once again lighting up, the man certainly did have a very animated face "That's great! Then let's go find her!" With that he started off and weaved himself into the crowd, and expert by now of how to navigate the masses of people.  
  
Suzuno supposed she ought to follow him; it would be much easier to find Kasaru if she had someone to help her, and so she jogged to catch up with him, latching onto the sleeve of his shirt. "It's...a he, actually...he has long brown hair and blue eyes, tall...dreamy..." She felt a blush rise in her cheeks when she actually heard what she was saying, and she trailed off at that. There was no conversation between the two of them as they scanned the crowds until the man shouted out.  
  
"HEY! There's Subaru! SOOBY!" He picked up Suzuno's wrist and began walking at a harried pace, cutting through the crowd and heading toward the grocer's shop. Once Suzuno realized where they were heading, she laid her eyes on Kasaru. He was laughing and talking with the girl whom had to be Subaru, and they were close enough together that it made Suzuno's blood boil with surprising jealousy. Quickly she appraised the other woman as the man dragged her toward them, she didn't seem -that- great, surely Kasaru wouldn't have abandoned her for that. To Suzuno she looked like a slut, but that could have been her jealousy talking, her platinum colored hair carried almost past her knees, and her dress was loose and flowing save for the bodice which fitted tightly underneath large breasts. As the two of them came to a stop not far from Subaru and Kasaru, Suzuno realized she felt hopelessly childish next to the other woman.  
  
"Toroki, you baka." Subaru laughed as she turned toward the man that had dragged Suzuno there "Why are you dragging that poor girl around?"  
  
"I'm going to paint her as soon as I find a 'brown haired, blue eyed, tall dreamy guy'" Toroki quipped, his energy barely contained.  
  
Subaru laughed "Looking for a boyfriend, Toroki?"  
  
"Not for me...for this girl..." He wrinkled his nose and pointed behind him, where Suzuno was 'inconspicuously' hiding. Suzuno stepped forward a bit and smiled shyly, but said nothing.  
  
"This is the girl I was talking to you about...the Byakko no miko." Kasaru looked over at Suzuno and smiled, a bit surprised that she had found him. "Suzuno...this is Subaru, one of the Byakko seishi. She agreed to help us...her father owns a farm and she says he would be willing to lend us a few horses for the journey."  
  
"Great!" Suzuno said, with mock cheerfulness, still awkward around Subaru...she seemed nice enough, but Suzuno could tell she was moving in on Kasaru. Moving in?! Why was she thinking like this, and why -now- when they needed all the help they could get?  
  
"Don't forget about me!" Toroki jutted out his lower lip and regarded his childhood friend, Subaru, with an over-dramatic sadness "I'm a Byakko no seishi too."  
  
"Hontou?" Kasaru looked bewildered, either surprised that they had found so many warriors so quickly, or that someone like Toroki could be a seishi.  
  
"Hai hai!" With an eager nod, his bangs falling in front of his eyes and at least partially blocking his vision, he grabbed onto the edge of his tunic and pulled it up enough for them to see the symbol imprinted on his stomach. Subaru just laughed, Toroki would never change, no matter whom he was associating with. "So what do we have to do?"  
  
Kasaru struggled through the explanation of the illusion and the note, he wasn't much of a people person, and found himself growing frustrated with his own inability to completely explain the situation, but then again, it wasn't as if he understood what was going on himself.   
  
"We'd be glad to help you find your sister, Tatara...and priestess, we -were- born to serve and protect you." Subaru bowed a bit, which only caused Suzuno to blush once more. She had never been the center of attention, let alone given any respect that was anywhere close to this. Of course she had always been appreciated, her parents never quit telling her how proud they were of her grades and her accomplishments, but she had never been respected. In their eyes and the world's eyes she was still just a kid.  
  
But what if this was just a dream? It wasn't hard to believe that she had fallen asleep while reading the book, and her dreams had been a way for her to escape the grief of losing her friend, but it seemed too...vivid, too tangible to be a dream.   
  
Suzuno went over what Kasaru, no -Tatara- she reminded herself, as that was what the others were calling him, had told her about the legend. Once she had gathered all seven seishi she could call upon the animal god Byakko, and three wishes were hers and hers alone...what would she wish for? Above all else, she wanted her friend back. It wasn't fair that a girl who was only fifteen could have her life stolen like this. After that...she would give the other two wishes to her protectors. She didn't know exactly what lay ahead, but she did know enough hard times would follow that it would warrant them worthy of being granted what they truly desired. Still...  
  
If only she could just wish for more wishes.   



	4. Secret World

"There is a girl in New York City, who calls herself the human trampoline. Sometimes when I'm falling, flying, tumbling in turmoil I say...'whoa...so this is what she means'" Paul Simon  
  
Chapter Four  
  
"So how far is it to the Sairou palace?" Toroki whined, once again readjusting his seat on the brown mare. It had been two hours and by this time his butt had fallen asleep, his legs had fallen asleep, and he was about to fall asleep. He could barely count the ten-minute break they had taken a half hour ago as much of a chance to rest, not that he needed a rest anyway. What he needed was a chance to use up all the energy that was building up in him like sodium under pressure.  
  
Suzuno, still a novice when it came to horse riding, was the only one in earshot of him. Tatara and Subaru had ridden ahead, and though Suzuno could still see them as their horses plodded along the path, she couldn't hear what they were discussing. She lagged a few feet behind Toroki, her horse tossing his head occasionally as if annoyed by the slow, irregular pace they were taking. A part of her wanted to speed up to catch up with Tatara, but she was still too fearful of the powerful animal underneath her to ask it to go faster. This wasn't like a car, not that she had driven one of those either, this animal was unpredictable...it had a thinking, active mind, it wasn't a machine.  
  
"I don't know..." she said finally, having to raise her voice and repeat herself to be heard over the clack of the horses hooves on gravel "I guess when we take another break we can ask them."  
  
"Okay..." Toroki said uneasily, detaching one hand from the reins to pet the mare's soft white hair. The hair reminded him of Subaru's, the color and the feel of it, and he snickered evilly when he tugged on it a bit. Not to be mean to the horse, but it had become a way for him to hide his growing affection for Subaru, by playing pranks on her. "But it looks like it's going to rain again."  
  
Suzuno's eyes followed the direction Toroki was pointing, up to the clouds. They were dark and swollen, pregnant with rain and ready to give birth at any second. Their looming presence gave Suzuno a sense of foreboding, and she shivered. As if on command, perhaps Toroki had jinxed them, a fat drop of rain plopped onto her nose. She sneezed.  
  
"Oh my god! I'm a psychic!" Toroki exclaimed, inwardly blessing what the others might call a misfortune. Surely Subaru and Tatara wouldn't insist on riding in the rain, and they'd finally get a chance to stop. The only problem was, there wasn't an inn or a house in sight.  
  
This is -not- going well, Tatara thought to himself, the rain shifting subtly but quickly from large drops to sharp stinging ones. Every time they had to stop it put his sister in that much more danger, he was sure, but he couldn't ask them to ride on in the rain, not only was that dangerous, but they were doing enough for him as it was.   
  
His eyes trailed along the landscape, where could they stop? It was too far to the next town, even then he doubted he had enough money that would get them even one room, and it would be improper to sleep in the same bed with a woman without being married to her. Not too far away was a small shading of trees, they could stay there. Tatara looked over at Subaru and motioned to show her where they were headed, and then started off that way.   
  
Suzuno was really beginning to loathe water; this would be the third time she was caught in it. For some people it was the symbol of life, of rejuvenation. For Suzuno it was just annoying. Well, at least the horse can get something to drink, she thought as she made her way across the fields to the trees Tatara was headed for. The ground was growing soft from the constant rainfall, and she could feel it pulling at the horse's hooves as it trotted. She began to wonder if the trees were really any protection from the rain at all, it would in a way be the -worst- place they could be if it turned into a thunderstorm.   
  
The leaves were thick, and the branches draped forward to create a veil around the trees. Tatara used one hand to push the limp branches aside and step inside, after tying his horse to a nearby tree and hoisting the pack that carried a few vitals, including seeds, onto his back. The tree he stepped over appeared to be an ancient one; it was bloated and gigantic from years of primary and secondary growth. The air inside was moist, a bit humid, but he felt no water break through the roof of leaves. He smiled and turned back to wait for Subaru, Suzuno, and Toroki.   
  
"Wow, it's like another world under here." Subaru remarked with a smile as she pushed aside the flimsy barricade of branches. She took a deep breath and looked around, in silent wonder. The scant amount of sunlight that hadn't been banished by the wandering clouds filtered in through the tiniest of breaks in the canopy of leaves, so pin sized streaks of light randomly hit the browning grass underneath them. She was distracted when she felt rain pelt the back of her dress and her hair, turning around she saw Toroki shaking out his wet hair and Suzuno stepping through the branches.  
  
Tatara eased his body to the ground and leaned his back against the slightly rough trunk of the tree; he hadn't realized how tired he was until his mind was taken off his sister. His legs trembled and his head pounded, the day thus far must have been too much for him.   
  
Noticing Tatara's pain and wanting to help, Subaru knelt down beside him and put the back of her hand to his forehead, which was warm to the touch. "Tatara...I think you might be coming down with a fever. I wouldn't be surprised, you might have caught a cold or something when you jumped into the lake." She sat down beside him and opened up the brown leather satchel she had brought with her. She reached in and tugged out a folded square of cloth, a spare blanket she had brought with her.   
  
"This isn't much...but it should fight off the cold a bit." Unfolding the blanket, she wrapped it tightly around his shoulders, then smiled. "There"  
  
All the while that same familiar jealousy was boiling within Suzuno. She tried to ignore it, knowing she was being childish and foolish, but it wouldn't go away...she couldn't command her emotions to let the incident blow over. Subaru was just too close, and now it looked like Tatara's affection for Subaru was growing as well. And why shouldn't it? Subaru was prettier, nicer, more mature and more useful than Suzuno. Tears stung her eyes as she continued her onslaught of self-degradation.   
  
"What about me? Do I get a blanket?"  
  
Toroki's voice, which had by now reached a near-whine, broke Suzuno out of her train of thought. Perhaps she was growing sick too, if she had been 100% well her brain might not have carried her along the path it was going now, but well...if it worked in the movies...  
  
Not giving herself enough time to think or act embarrassed, Suzuno grabbed Toroki's shoulders and turned him to face her. In one swift moment she leaned in and planted her lips against his. Toroki's eyes widened in shock. Suzuno pulled back, her face redder then ever, feeling Tatara and Subaru's eyes on her and knowing she had caught their attention. Good, now maybe Tatara was jealous.  
  
"I'm...sorry, priestess. But I don't like you like that."  
  
Suzuno blinked, if it were possible for her to blush anymore, she would have, but then again...perhaps her face was just growing hot because of the tears that were once again burning her eyes. With a mumble which served as an 'excuse me', she turned and tore through the leaves, running out of their warm sanctuary and out into the cold stinging rain. Why had she done that? Tears of embarrassment slid down her cheeks as she ran toward her horse, hoping they wouldn't come after her, but more than that...wishing she could just go home. She had only been here one day and already it had turned into a nightmare.  
  
She leaned against her horse and breathed its familiar scent as she choked on her sobs and buried her face in its mane. The rain was still going at it steadily and the sun was descending, night quickly approaching and enveloping the world in darkness.   
  
"Priestess, are you...are you all right?"  
  
Subaru, possibly the last person Suzuno wanted to see, well...other than Toroki. She turned around and rubbed her eyes free of tears, and nodded, keeping her gaze trained on the ground. "Hai...I'm fine..."  
  
"I have to apologize for what Toroki said, he's a real baka yarou sometimes...you have to forgive him. Maybe he really -does- like you, he was just too shocked, or too embarrassed, to say it in front of us. Guys do that sometimes, sometimes they-"  
  
"I don't care if Toroki likes me or not." Suzuno took a shaky breath, cutting Subaru off "That's not why I kissed him."  
  
"Then why...?"  
  
"Because...I like...Tatara." She had to force herself to say it, but she knew she couldn't possibly embarrass herself anymore than she had already managed to "I wanted to make him jealous because...I saw how close you two were."  
  
"Me and -Tatara-?" Subaru blinked, genuinely shocked, before she shook her head and laughed softly "No, no, no...I have a boyfriend. I was just trying to help, that's all...I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea." It was a lie, of course, Subaru had no boyfriend and she probably never would if her overprotective father had his way, but Suzuno needn't know that, not if it made her feel better.  
  
"You do?" Although it was dark out, Subaru thought she could see Suzuno brighten a bit "Oh wow, oh my god...why did I do that? Why was I so stupid?"  
  
"It's called being young, priestess...don't expect boys to understand it. When girls are around your age they've got so many things happening to them, so many hormones wrecking havoc on their system that sometimes even they can't explain the things they do." She smiled warmly, and placed a hand on Suzuno's shoulder "Not to make me sound like an old bitty, I'm only seventeen, but I know exactly what you're going through."  
  
Suzuno smiled back, a genuine one, before she lightly smacked herself in the forehead. "Ugh...do you think they're going to say anything about it?"  
  
"I doubt it!" Subaru laughed, and began to lead Suzuno back to the patch of trees "Guys usually avoid what makes them uncomfortable, and Toroki in particular....he's probably already forgotten about it."  



	5. Learning to Fly

"Into the distance, a river of black. Stretched to the point of no turning back. A flight of fancy on a windswept field, standing alone...my senses reeled. A fatal attraction that's holding me fast, how do I escape its irresistible grasp?" Pink Floyd  
  
Chapter five  
  
With a yawn, Subaru sat up and stretched languidly before rising unsteadily to her feet and stepping out from under the tree. The rain had come to a full stop, though she was greeted by a few drops plopping onto her head from the leaves above as she slipped away. She ran her fingers through her somewhat matted hair and looked around thoughtfully, wondering when she should wake up the others. She was reluctant to do so just yet, but they had to get up -some- time, it was already dawn.  
  
There was no great hurry to wake them up just yet, however, Subaru had always found the quiet time before anyone else woke up to be her version of heaven. It was this way whether she was on the farm with her family or traveling with a group of people that were supposedly her destiny. She had never before believed in destiny, thought it too foolish to follow a path that you thought was 'supposed' to take as opposed to one of your creation, but she could hardly deny that the facts that had presented themselves thus far pointed that maybe everyone did have a set job they were meant to accomplish in life. They didn't -have- to complete them, of course, she knew of many people that wandered aimlessly through life, but those were people who were either too lazy to do what they were born to do or too stupid to realize it.  
  
Subaru crossed the fields toward the place where they had tied up their horses, a gentle morning breeze meeting her and rippling through her hair. She shrugged her shoulder so the back she was carrying slid down her arm and to the ground. Bending down, she rummaged through the bag and produced a carrot, which she offered to the white nosed horse she had ridden.  
  
"Sorry we had to leave you out here, boy..." she murmured as she watched the horse lazily grind the carrot between his teeth "But I don't think there was enough room in there...and I doubt the other's are used to that kind of 'horsy' smell."  
  
The horse fixed one brown eye on her as he lowered his head to pull up a mouthful of grass. Subaru smiled gently and pet the horse's soft nose, if her calves weren't starting to cramp up from the crouching position she had adopted; she might have stayed there forever.   
  
Birds were stirring and singing sweet serenades to one another, flitting through the trees and nipping up droplets of water that had collected from the night's rain. Subaru heard someone waking, and so she slowly got to her feet with a groan, her thighs and back sore from the awkward position she had to sleep in last night. She couldn't easily dispel the unsettling dreams she had had last night. It was as if someone had been whispering images and desires and thoughts into her ear as she slept, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out who it was. Then she heard someone, Toroki most likely, grumbling about someone roaming around in the middle of the night, and the voices disappeared. It wasn't as though she had never had a nightmare before, and she quickly discarded it as a trick her mind played on her because of the change of scenery.  
  
Well, the others have slept enough, she decided as she started back toward the cluster of trees. As she walked, however, a tiny voice was still echoing through her mind, worming its way deep into her subconscious, subtly taking control of her every mannerism, her every movement.   
  
"Oooo...look guys! A town, we -have- to stop. We don't know when we might come across another one!"  
  
Suzuno wondered, with a smile, whether Toroki had ever tried out for a traveling actors group, he definitely had a thespian spirit. Even if she had embarrassed herself by kissing Toroki, she couldn't resent his presence when he managed to lift everyone's spirits. As Subaru had guessed, neither Tatara nor Toroki said anything about the kissing incident, so it was easier for her to pretend it never happened. "Why not Tatara, it'll give us a chance to stock up, and then we won't have to make trips into every town from here to the palace."  
  
Whether or not Tatara thought it a good idea, he couldn't refuse the smile on Suzuno's face and nodded. "Hai...all right, we can stop."  
  
"WAIIIII!!!" With a quick snap of the reins, Toroki took off toward the town, eager to see why all the citizens seemed to be clustered together.  
  
Suzuno slid off her horse and brushed her hands off on her skirt, beaming to herself over her independence. It was a small victory, but it meant a lot to someone who had never been given a chance to do anything for herself before. As they walked into town, she immediately spotted what looked like some sort of daytime carnival or festival, the shops were strung with a number of streamers and a colorful array of decorations made from some of the largest flowers Suzuno had ever seen, they looked as if they had been imported straight from the tropics. She wanted to go see what it was about, but she didn't want to be selfish, the longer they waited the more likely it would be that something would happen to Ai-Leng.  
  
They split up; Subaru and Toroki were to go get food that would support them for the next few days, and Suzuno and Tatara were going to see if anyone knew how far it was to the Sairou palace. A dark shop, that looked no bigger than a closet in Suzuno's opinion, caught their eye. There was no sign hanging over the door, though a square of wood above it was a lighter shade than the rest, suggesting that there had once been a sign to pronounce the name of the store. Stained on the window, however, was scrawled the symbols for "Maps, books, and things" Tatara decided that that, if anywhere, would be a good starting place.  
  
The air inside the small shop was stale, and the door was so low Tatara had to bend down to step inside without hitting his head. He did a brief scan of the room, it was lined wall to wall with faded books, and in the far right corner a small man was crouched behind a counter, his nose shoved in a book. When they entered, he didn't even look up, either oblivious or uncaring of their presence.  
  
Tatara made his way over to the counter and tapped lightly on the wood to get the man's attention. When he looked up, Tatara asked "Excuse me...I don't mean to bother you but, do you know how far it is to the Sairou palace?"  
  
As Tatara spoke with the shopkeeper, Suzuno broke away and began to wander around the store, pulling random books off the shelves to read odd titles like "The secrets of the mushroom; a staple of the elven diet." She smiled to herself as she moved from shelf to shelf, her eyes finally landing on "The mysterious play, the legends of the foreign priestess"  
  
Tugging out the rather thick volume, a cloud of dust wafted to her nose. She sneezed and carefully opened the seemingly fragile book, turning to some random page and noting that the book was, oddly enough, written in Japanese.  
  
"Once gathered, the seven seishi and the priestess must perform the summoning ceremony, it is against the law of the gods for her to purposefully delay the ceremony for any reasons. In the event that one of the Byakko no seishi is unable to make it to the ceremony, his or her respective celestial scroll may be burned in their place." Suzuno read quietly to herself until she felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.  
  
"The Sairou palace isn't nearly as far as we first thought...we should get there within two days." Tatara informed her.   
  
"Great!" Suzuno smiled brightly, looking over her shoulder to see that the storeowner had returned to his book, once again dead to the world. As Tatara started for the door, Suzuno tried to inconspicuously slip the book into her floored backpack, wincing when she made a bit of noise, and wondering what the punishment for shoplifting was in Sairou. But she hadn't any money to buy it, and the shopkeeper would never notice it missing anyhow, with so many books. Feeling better after she justified herself, she shouldered her bag and followed Tatara out. The owner didn't look up once.  
  
Toroki snuck a look over in Subaru's direction as she filled the burlap bag with miscellaneous items from the grocer's, and then looked back toward the door. The festival was calling to him, beckoning him like the destructive song of the mermaid. He drifted toward the open door of the shop, it wouldn't hurt if he was just away for a moment, Subaru probably wouldn't even notice.  
  
As soon as he was out of the shop he made a beeline for the crowd. The lower half of town was a maze of hastily set up booths, jewelry stands, candy tables...but what caught his eye and his interest was the little magic show that a few people had crowded around.  
  
Everyone had their eyes focused on one man, and thus Toroki did too. The guy was only 5'7"...5'8" at the most, Toroki observed, with chin-length emerald hair and golden eyes that lit up when he spoke. He was a -lot- smaller than Tatara, but he looked as though he might be around the same age, if not a little younger. His slender body was almost buried in the crimson traditional Chinese robe he wore, but he managed not to drown in it, despite his less-than graceful actions.   
  
He was explaining to the audience how he could show anyone, anyone at all, what it felt like to be a horseshoe by -becoming- a horseshoe. Of course this intrigued the audience, and there was a bit of chatter as to who was brave enough to try out, one man said that he thought -he- was brave enough...  
  
But it was Toroki that volunteered.  
  
  
  
  
-Now for some bad news- All right, as of June 16th and for the next two weeks I'm going on vacation...I -might- be able to work on this story but more than likely I won't have enough time...so, this story's progression is on hold...gomen nasai...ah, here's what they do in the commercials, a bit of previewing.  
  
-WHO is this green haired man? and is he really who he seems?  
-What's so important about that book Suzuno stole?  
-What is Subaru buying that distracted her so much from Toroki's disappearing act, but most importantly...  
  
  
-what DOES it feel like to be a horseshoe?  
  
(my guess is it doesn't feel like much of anything.)  
  
Well, I'm going down to florida ::puts on a pair of shades:: Jaa!  



	6. Evidence

Guess who's back with avengance? Actually I was back since saturday but I've been doing a bit of vacation recovery (read: getting in contact with all my friends to make sure they're all still alive)  
  
It was actually kind of hard to get back into the flow of things...so, I apologize if my writing is a bit scratchy in this chapter, soon to improve I assure you! Also...I started my story "Michi ni Mayou" on the Genbu seishi, for anyone who's interested.  
  
On a final note, I have drawn pictures of the Byakko seishi, and by request I can e-mail them to you. Just write to byakkokokie@aol.com.  
  
That is all. ^_^  
  
  
"The darkness must flow, down the river of night's dreaming. Flow morphia slow, and let the sun, and light come sinking...into my life...into my life."-Riffraff (XD!)  
  
Chapter six  
  
With a dazzling grin that gave him the expression of a mixture of stupor and excitement, Toroki stepped up to the magician. "I volunteer! I really, realllly do!"   
  
The green-haired man closed one eye and fixed the other on Toroki skeptically, before his face lit up and matched Toroki's face in childlike delight. "Okay!" It was as if he had expected no one to volunteer (which was often the case for the unfortunate performer, he was too excitable and childish for people to trust enough for him to experiment on), he instructed Toroki to close his eyes, and he did...waiting patiently for the magic to happen.  
  
The change didn't set in all at once; at first Toroki felt nothing but a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, a lick of nausea. Then he felt the ground close in around him, he felt himself falling and pitching forward. His bones were snapping and he cried out in pain, though what came out was a small, high pitched...  
  
Bark. Toroki's eyes flew open and he looked down to see a pair of furry paws. Above him he heard voices murmuring, the most distinct being the magician saying thoughtfully "No...no, that's not right." Every sound, however, resounded to his ears as if through a plastic cup, but he had no hands with which to feel if any cups were strapped to his ears. Toroki danced about nervously on his tiny paws and howled his desire to be normal again, but if anyone could translate his yapping, they didn't say anything.  
  
"Oh, phoo!" After a third failed attempt to undo his mistake, the magician knelt down and scooped up the jittery Chihuahua "I think I'm oughta poof for the day, boy...I guess we'll have to put the horseshoe idea on hold..."  
  
He clambered clumsily to his feet with Toroki in his arms and took one final look at the audience before taking a bow and then making his grand exit, disappearing in a cloud of dust. The crowd, still confused as to what it was they had seen, stood in silent wonder for a moment before slowly, reluctantly dispersing. Tatara, Suzuno and Subaru ran up to catch the tail ends of the conversation. "...weirdest thing I've ever seen." "Poor kid...I'd hate to be a dog."   
  
Tatara caught up to one of the spectators and got them to slow to a halt. "What...is everyone talking about?"  
  
"Awww! Dude! You missed the -coolest- show! You see there was this guy with teal hair that got turned into a DOG! It was awesome!"   
  
Tatara thought that perhaps in his panic he might have misheard him, or the person he was talking to had had too much to drink. "Turned into a...what?"  
  
"A dog! There was this magician that comes around every day 'er so...sayin' he can do some weird shit. Well, no one ever really volunteered to help him until today...and man am I glad I volunteered to do my family's washin'!"  
  
Well, he seemed...sober. The teal haired man could almost assuredly be Toroki, and if he was turned into a dog, which still sounded absurd to him, it would explain his disappearance. Tatara swept his fingers through his mane of hair and ruffled it a bit to let air circulate to his scalp, asking "Do you know where this magician went?"  
  
"Naw...he disappeared, just like that!" The teenager snapped his fingers and shrugged. "Sorry...but maybe he'll be back tomorrow. Man...that was awesome..." He continued to talk as he drifted away, leaving a perplexed Tatara to stand there alone and think. After a few minutes he turned and jogged to catch up with Suzuno and Subaru. Their eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as he explained the slightly ridiculous tale.  
  
"We have to search the town. If that magician or Toroki is still here...we're going to find them."  
  
  
"I think I'll name you....Peppy. Peppy the Chihuahua!" With a noise that sounded similar to 'squee', the magician set a shivering Toroki down on one of the tables of the outdoor restaurant. He pulled up a chair and plopped himself beside the dog, grinning from ear to ear. So the trick hadn't gone...-exactly- as planned, he was proud of his new pet. He was still cooing at the Chihuahua when he was surrounded on all sides by three people, not one of them looked happy.  
  
Toroki lifted his little muzzle and recognized Subaru, though in dog-vision the image was somewhat grainy. He danced on the table and howled.  
  
"I think you have our...ah, our dog." Subaru told the magician, her arms crossed and an unpleasant expression pasted to her face. Her eyes made him cringe as he said meekly.  
  
"My doggie."  
  
"Listen...that man you turned into a dog for a trick? That's one of my friends and we um...need him, to find out where he...parked the horse?"  
  
Everyone took their attention off Toroki and turned to look at Suzuno oddly. Her ears grew red and she glanced down at her shuffling feet, saying no more.  
  
"Look...is there any way you can turn Toroki back into a human?" Tatara turned back to the magician, who was curled up in his chair, twirling a strand of emerald hair around his finger.  
  
"I'm outta 'poof' today." He responded, then he looked to the collection of faces hovering over him, from Tatara, to Subaru, to Suzuno. There was something...different about that girl; she seemed foreign, out of place. He couldn't...quite put his finger on it, and so he ignored the odd feeling he got, scooping Toroki up into his arms and petting the reluctant dog's head. "You'll have to wait."  
  
If Tatara had been a violent man, he would have strangled the skinny man, but as it was, it was Subaru that reached out and smacked the magician across the cheek. The magician meeped and withdrew, debating disappearing at that moment, when Subaru grabbed the collar of his robe and pulled him forward. "LISTEN! Something -very- bad is going to happen if we don't get to the palace in the next few days, and we -need- Toroki to help us get there. I don't care WHAT you say...you must not have been trying hard enough, I want Toroki back and I want him NOW!"  
  
Obediently, he slipped out of the chair and plopped Toroki's paws onto the ground. When he knelt down beside the Chihuahua and placed his hand on his back, Tatara caught a glimpse of something marking one of the magician's feet, near his ankle. A symbol.  
  
"What's...your name?" Tatara asked as he watched the man put all of his concentration into molding Toroki back into his old form. The picture wasn't pretty, so Tatara kept his eyes trained on the magician instead, while Suzuno and Subaru looked away all together.  
  
"Chi-yuen!" He said proudly.  
  
"But everyone calls me Kokie."  



	7. Anywhere is

"I'm in this sweet madness, or this glorious sadness...that brings me to my knees. In the arms of the angel, far away from here...from this stark cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you feel. In the arms of the angel, will you find some comfort here"--Sarah McLachlan  
  
  
Chapter seven  
  
"-Kokie-?" Toroki spat out the word, along with an impressive amount of spit, as he gasped for breath. He felt...raw, like a newborn baby, and cold, though that was do to his lack of clothes. "Isn't that a Byakko seishi's name?"  
  
"A what?" Kokie twined his fingers together and fidgeted uncomfortably, slowly but not too inconspicuously backing up, tripping over his chair and landing on his back as he did so.   
  
"I believe it is..." Tatara nodded, and Suzuno's face lit up. She knelt down beside Kokie and hugged him tightly, and even if the magician had anticipated disappearing, he would feel guilty about doing so now.  
  
"Four! Four Byakko no seishi, Tatara!" Suzuno's voice fluttered in a near singsong as she beamed up at him, and Tatara found himself almost taken aback by the girl...and the innocence about her. "Three more and I'll be able to help you and Ai-Leng!"  
  
"What's going -on-?" Kokie whined, rubbing the back of his head at the point of contact with the cobblestone road. "I'm confused."  
  
"Mmm...well...you see..." Toroki, finding the clothes folded on the table from when he had a rendezvous with his canine nature and tugging them on hastily. "You are like me, a Byakko seishi, which means you have to protect her." One handedly refastening his tunic, he pointed to Suzuno. "And they..." his finger went from Tatara to Subaru "are seishi too. All of us are headed for the Sairou palace, because someone kidnapped Tatara's little sister."  
  
Kokie fixed his dazed expression on Toroki, golden eyes wide and unfocused. "In a nutshell?"  
  
"In a nut shell. Come on" Toroki scrambled to his feet and offered his hand to help Kokie to his feet as well. Once he was to his feet, the magician took a moment to brush the dirt off his robe, before looking at Toroki, once again confused.  
  
Although Kokie opened his mouth to speak, he soon shut it, and let Toroki drag him back toward the horses. There was a lot that Kokie already knew that he wasn't letting on, for consistency's sake he played the clueless happy go lucky magician, it was just how people knew him...and it wasn't like there was anything great about knowledge anyway, all it ever did was bring you bad luck.  
  
  
"The celestial scrolls, which are bound to their respective seishi, only appear after the seishi's untimely death, before Byakko has been summoned. If the scroll is destroyed then the seishi's soul dies...and the priestess is relieved of her duties, as without all seven seishi the puzzle is incomplete..."  
  
Suzuno's voice died down when she heard footsteps, and she looked up from her position underneath a tree to see Tatara smiling down at her. When she returned the smile, he settled down in a patch of grass opposite her, with his back to the gentle rolling stream that they had been following.  
  
"I'm sorry Tatara...that I have us stop so much, I know every day we're late that your sister's in that much more danger, I just..."  
  
"Don't apologize, Suzuno, I know this trip has to be hard on you. I don't know where you come from, but I do know...it can't be easy to be somewhere so unfamiliar. I don't want to push you farther than what you can handle, and in thirty minutes or so we wouldn't be able to ride anyway, the sun's setting." Tatara turned a bit to look behind him, at the stream "and you couldn't have picked a better place to stay, do you see that sunset? I've never seen colors so vivid..."  
  
Suzuno felt a soft pink creep into her cheeks as she nodded slowly, her eyes straying to the horizon as well. It was striking, the way the pink and oranges of the fading light melted into the cottony bellows of clouds and the shimmering remnants of sun dissolved into the flatlands beyond, grass tinged red like it was on fire. Back in Tokyo it was too dirty to see a sunset like that, or stars...there was nothing like the faint tickle of a breeze wafting across your body as you stared up at the ebony blanket of night, pinned to the skies with stars, as fireflies danced about you to the music of the crickets and cicadas.   
  
Finally Tatara returned his gaze to her "I know...when we gather the seven Byakko seishi that you'll have to go back, but I really feel blessed to have such a wonderful girl as my priestess. You are one in a million, Suzuno..."  
  
He leaned forward to give her a soft kiss on the cheek before getting up and walking back toward the campsite they had set up an hour before. It was just a light peck, perhaps it meant nothing, but for a moment Suzuno could do nothing but sit there, with a crooked smile pasted to her face. It was in that instant that she realized she was falling in love, but with what? A character from a book? Tatara -was- right, when this was over she would have to go back, but when that moment came...would she really want to?  
  
It had gotten too dark to read, and yet she was too energetic to try sleeping yet, and so she closed her book and set it aside. Her footsteps carried her along the bank of the stream, and as she let her eyes take in the beautiful scenery, her mind strayed to other thoughts. If she was granted three wishes, maybe then she could wish to stay here forever. There was so much this world had to offer that she just couldn't see back in Japan...and she hated to be selfish, perhaps maybe her mind would change, but she had grown so attached to Toroki, Subaru...Tatara, in the short time they had been together, and she knew she'd grow close to the other seishi as well, if they were as great as the ones she had already met.  
  
Her mind had been far away for some time, there was no telling how far from the campsite she had wandered when she felt a large hand cup over her mouth and muffle her. Suzuno's instinct was to struggle, and so she did, but whoever had grabbed a hold of her obviously had no intentions of letting her go.   
  
"Look who wandered into our territory..." she heard someone behind her snicker, and his voice was so impossibly weasely sounding.   
  
"Yep." The hot breath of the man who had grabbed her brushed across her ear, and when she got a whiff of his breath...she almost puked right there. "Pretty little thing though...c'mon, let's get her back before her parents or whoever show up."  
  
  



End file.
